PREFACE
Bad Kings. It is interesting to note that it was from precisely this section of the Arthurian epic that Swinburne took, long afterwards, The Tale of Balen.
"In the Twilight" was almost certainly written in October 1867, when Victor Emmanuel, acting under the advice of Ratazzi, had endeavoured to confine Garibaldi to his island. It was probably rejected from Songs before Sunrise on account of its similarity of subject and tone with "A Watch in the Night."
The greater part of the poems here published were hidden, unknown to Watts-Dunton, at the Pines. All round Swinburne's sitting-room there were discovered after his death unsightly rolls or parcels tied up in old newspaper, some of them looking as if they had not been opened for half a century. These parcels were found to contain proofs, bills, letters, prospectuses and every species of rubbish, together with occasional MSS, in prose and verse, On reflection, it became evident what they were. For many years Swinburne was in the habit of allowing miscellaneous material to gather on his table, until a moment came when he could bear the pressure of it no longer. He would then gather everything up, tie the whole in the current newspaper of the day, and then delicately place it on a shelf, where it never was again disturbed.
xxii.
